Told you i'd be back - I was jsut too tired to get this up last night.

A shout out to Ooza for this one - she beta'd it for me and gave me a proper English/American lesson at the same time lol

Thank you - You should really work at my old hight school ;)


The Difference Between Us

Chapter 4

EPOV

The perfect female is a higher type of human being than the perfect male: and also something so much more rare. - Friedrich Nietzsche

It had been three days since the incident in the kitchen and three days since I had seen Isabella.

I hated myself for losing control like I had, but I hated myself more for ever scaring her, for putting her in that situation in the first place.

Reality hadn't completely left me; I knew it wasn't fair to try to hold her like I was, but at the same time it simply wasn't safe for her to go out, public.

In here she was safe. No one knew of any connection we had, and no one would have even expected anyone to be living here – even me.

But that day, she pushed and she pushed and I knew what she was asking. My own self vanity had escaped my lip's and I had transpired my thoughts and ways - old ways - of living, onto her.

She goaded, me looking for me to say it, to show my self-worth and shallowness to her, my unsavoury need to be better than all the rest.

That was gone now and any possible chance to be the vision of myself, that I aimed for. Fate had stepped in and taken that away from me. My penance for becoming too conceited.

The odd sense of alienation took over my life as I disappeared into the stratosphere, but it wasn't my vanity I missed. Not the sense of being wanted by my girlfriend. Not even the sense of being wanted by my own father. What I missed was the man I was. The man that was in demand.

When Isabella confronted me and pushed for an answer, I could tell she thought she knew everything about me. In her world any confirmation of superlativeness on my side would only equate to one thing. My shallow thoughts on myself, the world, and her belief that my thoughts reflected on to her.

I panicked. Blinded with the look in her eyes and the hatred of her de-restitution and having to be anywhere near me.

And then I just swiped her. Straight out of my line of sight and firing thought my peripheral as she landed on the floor.

Standing in my room, I had no real recollection of my journey after I had left her in the kitchen.

I didn't even go and see how she was.

I was panicking and my shallow breath caught in my lungs, forcing everything else in to the abyss.

Slowly my breathing calmed, but by that point I was no less than a shrivelling ball on the stairs leading to the ground floor of the house, from my bedroom.

Each climb of the stairs was made on my knees, my hands gripping at the soft Persian cream carpet that ran the length of the staircase.

Jasper and Alice found me. Alice knew exactly that I had done Isabella wrong.

She never spoke to me, but Jasper did. He came down onto his knees to sit beside me on my spot at the top of the stairs. He asked what happened, and I struggled to get the words out.

I gasped for air, once again stuttering that I panicked. Then Alice fled to the other staircase that led to Isabella.

The look of dread had filled Alice's eyes. I wondered what she thought I was capable of as she rushed to Isabella's side so swiftly.

I had been wrong, and I knew it. But I still couldn't stop it.

The mental image of Isabella passing through the air was something that had haunted me for the past three nights. It was all I could dream about.

Isabella.

She had been all I had thought about and now I was throwing her around like a rag-doll.

I was the one that was supposed to protect her.

Maybe she was right. Maybe she should just leave town.

I was capable of arranging that, to see that she got away safe.

But I didn't want that. I wanted her here.

The looks and moves and sounds she made around me - I had never seen her act like that before. Before she was happy. Before she was safe. And before...before she never had to look at me.

I terrorized her.

Not by holding her here, not by the way I spoke to her, but the simple fact of how I looked.

Her curiosity was killing her. She was trying desperately to put the pieces together and find out what was going on in my mind and what had happen to me.

My verbalization of what happened would put at her at ease. I was attacked.

But the reasoning behind it...I don't think she could be capable of looking past that. Seeing the real monster.

I sat at the kitchen island eating my breakfast of oatmeal, an egg white omelette, and a fruit salad. It was a good way to start the day.

I had to get back to my normal routine.

Why should it matter if Isabella were to stay ? Our worlds were separate and they always would be.

I let my thumbs tap to the rhythm of the music that passed to my ears from the ear buds of my MP3 player as I ate. I needed to proceed with my life how it was before I had to rescue her that night.

I could go back to the world I was in.

It was dark and it was lonely. In that world I still had Isabella but I knew now I couldn't go on living the way I had, I needed to step back and leave this place.

I was suffocating in my town house that I had all to myself.

It was done. When Isabella was to leave here, so would I.

A shadow cast upon my plate and I jumped up with fright as I looked up to find Isabella standing before me.

I looked away from her and carefully hid my face with my hood. "Next time make some noise." I snapped at her a little harsher than I had intended as I pulled out my ear buds. It was my own fault really, but I had just reacted to the fright. I didn't like people creeping up behind me. Alice would lay testimony to that one.

"Sorry," She mumbled so quietly as she looked down to her nervous hands

I shrugged as I looked back down to my breakfast before I looked back up at her. I felt oddly nervous myself. But then again, that sensation always plagued me when I was in the presence of Isabella.

Her eyes darted to my plates and bowl as she studied my breakfast. I could see her frown as she no doubt paid attention to the selection I had. After all, it was food that had begun the short argument only three days ago.

"I'm sorry, Isabella. I should never have done that. I know you hate me but..." I shrugged the end of my sentence, lost for words. There were no words to condone what I had done. None at all.

"I don't hate you," she gasped. She frowned again, and I could see the small creases form on her soft skin. "I shouldn't have acted like I did. It's none of my business. You are being kind to let me stay here. I still don't think it's right...but let's just try to weather the storm, okay?" Her words were firm and a little curt, but it was an improvement. "I mean, we went three days without seeing one another. We might not need to see each other again until I leave," she said flippantly.

How come those words felt like such a sharp kick in the gut?

"I only came down because I heard you in here." She shrugged. "All I want is my backpack."

She was only speaking to me to get her bag back?

I suppose I couldn't be surprised. But I could be disappointed.

I toed her backpack at my feet silently, remembering that I was going to give it to her. But now she could wait.

"I have to take a few things out of it, but I'll get it to you later," I informed her sharply.

Her face dropped. "You don't need to take anything out of it. It's my bag; They're my things. Give them back," she all but shouted.

"I can't have you contacting the outside so I'll be keeping your laptop and cell until you go home." I looked back to my oatmeal as I spooned a mouthful to myself and kept my eyes away from Isabella's.

"I need that stuff," she argued through gritted teeth, tears threatening to spill as I looked back up at her. She didn't look as strong as I thought she was. She was folding quickly. "My life is balancing right now with phone calls and emails. I need to get a hold of people. I need my life back."

"You have your life. If it wasn't for me, you might not even be breathing. Don't give me shit that you are so fucking important. You're nothing." The words vomited out of my mouth at her own self-importance.

She was young. Too young to see that the world didn't revolve around her. She was just another piece in the fitting. Replaceable.

She looked at me, totally dumbstruck at my words. "Do you really think that if something were to happen to you that the world would change? Granted your dad would be upset, and he is the only reason I have you here, but the world wouldn't change. Nothing would alter. Someone would just come along and take your place. Those email and calls...do you think no one else is capable of making them? That if you were to vanish, no one else could take them?"

Her eyes glazed and filled as she tried to keep her look directed at me.

"Isabella, you are so insignificant. Do you not think that they could just hire some other girl to wait on tables at Marcelo's? It's not hard. If you're gone, all we'll do is forget." Though I said it, the thought didn't seem realistic. Would I just forget about her when she left?

She gasped for air in two short bursts as she tried to compose herself. Her tears fled the scene of her eyes and made their escape along the porcelain on her cheeks, dripping onto her designer top that Alice bought for her.

Then she was gone. She fled the kitchen just like I had on our last encounter.

Our worlds were separate, and any disillusioned idea that Isabella was something exquisite was gone at the sight of her own insolence for herself.

Maybe we weren't so different after all.


"You are a total prick, Edward. The shittiest prick," Alice spat at me as she loaded up the dishwasher. "She was actually beginning to come out of her shell, you know?" Her violet eyes beaming with anger from over her shoulder.

"Alice..." Jasper tried his usual feeble attempt to silence her.

"What the fuck were you thinking?" she asked as she stood up to face me and placing a hand on her waist.

"I'm thinking that you obviously have such low intellect with the amount of swearing you do. Obviously you have a low level of word ability...Except when it comes to accessories," I dig at her smugly.

"Edward, piss off. I really don't give a shit what you think of me or my vocabulary or the fact that I was able to put a roof over my head without any of my daddy's I give a shit about is the girl that is in tears upstairs." I tried to ignore the daddy jibe. She sighed and turned away to look at Jasper. She was trying him, to get me to listen.

He just stood there, gormless as usual when it came to Alice. And it was her that said I was the one that could work him...

"I'll speak to her later," Jasper finally told us as he tried not to get involved on my side or Alice's. He was staying neutral. Fucking Switzerland, all the time.

"Grow a dick, man," I shouted at him. "Just tell her I'm right. I can keep what I want of hers. I'm in charge of her. Her dad told me to watch her." I was embellishing to say the least, but I still could never admit that I had offered to take her in.

Jaspers head snapped in my direction with his eyes narrowing in on me. "What is it that's got you like this? Look at you. It was this arrogant façade that got you into trouble in the first place." He looked away disgusted. I felt like he stabbed me and I was now deflating.

Had my arrogance reared again at the prospects of being challenged by Isabella?

Alice only quirked her brow at me and the obvious blow I had been given, even if I was hiding it.

"You tell me to grow a dick, but here you are giving abuse to some girl. So what if she feels like her life is balanced in calls right now? Your whole life was balancing on your stinking attitude and look what happened. She wants out of here and I don't blame her. So. Do. I," he shouted at me.

"If that's the way you want it, then go. You have your own apartment," I reminded him sharply.

What the hell was I saying?

I was giving my best friend hell because of Isabella.

I was still confused about the whole incident, to be honest. All she had wanted was her bag, and I had shouted at her telling her she would never be missed.

That was a lie.

The mere prospect of Isabella leaving made me miss her already. I wanted her here, but at her sharp tone, I went for her. Straight for the carotid artery, draining her of all the blood to her head. Draining her of that sweet blush on her cheeks.

I was a fuckwit.

What got to me most was that she was wanted. People wanted to speak to her. Jasper and Alice were beyond fed up with me and how I had been living, but they had put up with me. And the thought of Isabella leaving here and never thinking about me again - It pissed me off.

I was a hindrance. Her being here was a hindrance to herself. Her life had stopped because I was trying to keep her here. She didn't want that. She wanted to take whatever, whoever, on, and I couldn't do that knowing she might be the only thing in my life worth observing that could disappear.

Alice nodded firmly. "Yes. Jasper lets go," she told him seriously. Was she just going to pull him away from me? Was she just going to leave Isabella here with me? "Bella can come with us. We have an underground parking lot at our place and if we wait until its dark we can sneak her out of here." Bella? Christ, she had it all planned out...Bella?

She had just called her Bella. Were they on friendly terms? Friendly enough terms that she would go with Alice?

"Bella?" It was the only word that I could actually verbally process.

Alice's eyes snapped to mine. "Yes. She can stay with us." She shrugged so damn nonchalantly like she always did. Nothing was ever an issue with Alice. Well, myself being the only exception.

Bella.

Did she ask to be called that? And why was that the only thought that would process in my mind right now? Think, Cullen, think.

I shook the thought out of my head. "You can't take her. There is no space for her," I told her flatly, knowing that there was if they really wanted her there.

Jasper's eyes narrowed on me. "I've never heard you complain when you crashed with us when Tanya was kicking you out."

My jaw set at the mention of that name. Tanya Denali was a name I would care to forget about.

I ignored the jab. "Besides, her dad trusts me. He doesn't know you."

"I think Bella would be more comfortable with us." Alice told me a little too matter-of-factly.

"Why do you insist on calling her Bella all of a sudden?" I asked, completely changing the direction of the conversation.

Alice looked amused. She folded her arms as she looked at me curiously. "Because she asked me to. All of her friends call her Bella." I wasn't able to ignore her tone as she referred to Bella's friends, indicating that she was somehow one and I wasn't.

I pulled on my hair in frustration, my hood slipping down.

Alice's eyes landed on my head, inspecting the damage. "Daddy still hasn't fixed that up for you yet?" she tutted and gave out a small low whistle. "You must have really pissed him off."

I could only glare at her. How dare she talk about things she never knew or could understand. I was never going to look normal again. Even with Carlisle's experience.

I ignored her again.

"You are not taking Isabella. You two can leave if you want, but she stays here."

With that, I left them standing in the kitchen.

I knew that Jasper would never leave me, especially on bad terms like that. He just wasn't that guy.

I was – he wasn't.

Getting back to my room, I looked at the backpack that had caused the upset between us all. I knew it was my own fault. I should have just given her the damn thing, but something in her cold tone made me want to lash out at her.

I paced my bedroom before deciding to go on a run. Because I wasn't going outside, I changed into track pants, quickly connecting myself to my mp3 player and stepped onto the treadmill. Pressing the buttons, the belt began to move, and I quickly gathered speed until I was running at full throttle.

I missed the real air of the city when I did this. The faint hum of the city trying to sneak past the sound of my music as I went. No one seemed to pay attention to me, but now I feared all eyes would land on me as I zipped over the pavement.

I ran and ran. I didn't know if something was chasing me or if I was just simply trying to run away.

What a hell hole of an existence this was if all I would ever run on would be the treadmill.

My feet pounded the frame, and I was sure it was ready to shatter. My heavy steps landed on the belt one after the other. Constant.

My legs began to burn, and noticing that I had been on it for almost half an hour, I slowed down to walk, then stopped.

I caught my breath. I was finally getting fitter again and regaining my strength after being bed ridden for weeks.

I stretched out my muscles, and I was desperate for a shower to get rid of my perspiration. I hated to feel dirty.

Letting the hot water soak me, I scrubbed at my skin all over, careful of my wounds as I went. They were pretty much healed. I was lucky. I knew that. But it still did nothing for how they made me look, how they made me feel.

I dried myself off and stepped out of my en suite with my towel wrapped around me, to be met with two startled eyes. Brown eyes.

Isabella

Bella

Whoever.

"I...I...I..." She stumbled as she looked at my chest. I would love to say she was admiring my definition but, even I couldn't be that shallow to see what she was really looking at.

But what the hell was she doing in here? This was my room.

"Get out,." I growled at her trying to hold on to my towel.

Her eyes finally snapped up to mine. "I said get out," I yapped at her again. She had well and truly crossed the line.

She quickly caught her words though. "I..I..wanted my backpack," she finally told me as she held on to the thing.

I lunged forward at her and with my free hand I grabbed hold of the other strap on the bag. "No. I'll give it to you later."

"Walk on. This is my bag and I'll take it when I want." She tugged at the materiel and pulled sharply, almost dislocating my shoulder at the same time. Christ she was tough.

"Isabella, I swear to god..." I warned her. She would not win this one. She should take heed of my warnings now.

She let the bag strap fall and the weight of the laptop in the bag made it thud off of the floor. I was sure not enough to actually damage it though.

"You swear to god, what?" She squared up to me, looking me in the eyes. "What are you going to do, Edward? Hit me again?" This was a nasty piece of work. She looked so menacing as she glared at me. She wasn't scared of me at all.

She saw just how frail I still was and now I had nothing over her.

The time seemed to stand still as we looked between one another. The other daring to say something.

"I never hit you," I told her, sure of myself. "I...I...I..." God, now it was me who was stumbling on my words. "I panicked. I pushed you out of the way and I know that was wrong, but I never hit you."

She sighed and looked away from me, knowing I was right. She chewed on her bottom lip, and I felt myself being drawn to them, like I always had. She folded her arms before eventually looking back up at me, but not before her eyes lingered on my chest once more.

"I just wanted my stuff back. That was all." Her voice was soft and sweet and any reason for raised voices seemed to be gone. Why would I ever shout at her? Why would I ever treat her so wrongly?

I nodded at her words, but I still held the bag in my hand and never offered it to her.

Hey eyes still bore into mine but calmness flooded the room like opening gates on a canal.

We were quiet. Our breathing calmed from our heated words as our eyes continued to linger. Isabella in the clothes that I had asked Alice to help her buy online and me in the towel that hung around my waist. I was still exposed though. My modesty was covered, but that was all.

Isabella finally found her voice. "What happened to you?" Her eyes danced across my chest before meeting mine once again.

Standing there, I was exposed. My secret was coming out. I was still weak.

"I was stabbed." My own voice caught in my throat, and it sounded horse as I finally said the words out loud. It sounded like I was upset. I was upset. Someone had took my life into their own hands and thought that they could play about with it.

Isabella gasped, and as she did, she cupped her mouth with her hands, her body bending forward as if someone had struck her in the stomach. Her eyes shone with tears of no real sympathy, but tears of fear and pain that she could only no doubt imagine.

Her eyes continued to flicker from my chest to my eyes as she tried to take it in.

It wasn't just some story she was reading in the newspaper. The cut along my pectoral matched the lines along my face. Pink with stitch marks.

They were healing. I was healing. But my life was another matter now.

She straightened up a little and looked at me with those two eyes that I could never forget. Charlie's eyes. They were the exact same, and though Charlie had been the one to save my life, Isabella was the one to actually force the life back through my veins when I saved her.

It wasn't coincidence that I was there when they attempted to take her. It was fate.

"I'm so sorry." she told me sincerely.

"Don't be. It was deserved." My voice was still horse, and as she reached out to touch me, I took a step back, away from her hand.

She flinched at my movement. "I'm so sorry. I don't know what I was thinking..." She blushed as she tried to hide her face in a panic. She shook her head firmly as she made eye contact with me once again. "But you never deserved this. No one do-"

"I did," I interrupted her sharply. She knew nothing of the incident and nothing of my past.

She shook her head again. "No...No. I can't believe you did. You're helping me. You're keeping me safe..." she trailed off.

I shook my head. "No, I owe it to your father. I'm doing it for him. He saved me...I helped you." I shrugged.

She looked up at me, completely perplexed. "But how did you know where I was or who I was? It wasn't just coincidence, was it?"

I shook my head at her. "Northing's coincidence."

She chewed deep down onto her lip again as she thought through my words. She was beginning to see that I was, in fact, her very own stalker.

"You followed me?" she asked, stunned as it dawned on her just exactly what I had been doing. "For how long?"

Did I want to lie and make it not sound as bad as it really was? Yes. But it probably wasn't the best idea.

I took a deep breath and let it fill my lungs as I prepared for her rant that would no doubt follow. "F-four weeks."

Her mouth dropped, her eyes set wide. She was silenced. Hell, she wasn't even blinking.

"F...four weeks?." she gasped as she took a seat on my bed. "W...w...why? How? What possessed you to do that? Are you mad?" I let her take in her thoughts as she rubbed at her forehead with the heels of her hands.

She turned to face me, and as she did, she shifted along a place on the bed. It didn't go unnoticed.

"Do you have, like, a doctor?" she asked seriously.

I frowned at her gentle way of asking if I was in anyway certifiable. I wasn't.

"No. Listen to me. I spent a lot of time with your dad. We would talk...he tried to keep me calm after I had a knife pulled out of me, Isabella."

This wasn't the conversation to have in this state. I wasn't even wearing any clothes.

I sighed for everything that had went so wrong when all I had tried to do was the right thing. "Can you give me a second until I get some jeans on?" I asked gently.

She nodded but made no attempt to move from my bed, so I grabbed a few things and headed to my bathroom to dress.

I felt like she had cut me deeper than that knife had. I felt like I had been gutted.

I wasn't use to this world. I never really spoke to anyone about anything. Jasper was my best friend and I even struggled with him. The only other person to make me feel vulnerable as Isabella did, was Charlie. And my own father, of course, but that was for all the wrong reasons.

I dressed quickly and walked out to find a still shell-shocked Isabella.

Her eyes glanced up to my chest, to the spot of where my scar was. Though it was covered now, she couldn't take her eyes off of me.

I didn't pay her any attention or say anything. I had poured a bucket of cold water over her and she was trying to catch her breath.

Sitting down on the bed, I took a seat next to her once again. I rubbed at my damp hair, making it stick down to my scalp a little more.

She noticed this and then she noticed the other scars that I had tried to keep so well hidden. She gasped again as she looked at my head and my face consecutively, looking for me to confirm the visible injury.

I wasn't going to. She could see that the scars didn't only exist on my face and chest.

At that she burst into tears. Her face collapsing into her lap as she wrapped her arms around her legs.

I didn't know what to do or say. I was upsetting her, and it was because of how I looked.

When Tanya was upset with me, it was usually because I had pissed her off. She would kick me out of my apartment and I would have to win her back with some expensive jewelry.

I had no jewelry for Isabella. No sparkle of diamonds to make her smile. And I couldn't go out and buy her something. What would I buy her, anyway? Traditional or contemporary? A necklace or a bracelet?

Hesitantly, I gave her all I could. My hand.

I placed my palm on her back, and even though she jumped a little at my contact, she relaxed as I tried to calm her down.

"Don't cry, piccolino." I flushed instantly as the word came pouring out of my mouth. It was an old endearment that my mother would use for me - for me and only me.

She looked up at me with her cheeks damp and red and the look of utter confusion in her eyes.

I shrugged. "It's a word my mother would use," I told her swiftly trying to keep away from the subject.

She sat up, and I took my hand off of her and placed it in the small gap between us.

"I'm sorry...I don't know why..." She didn't complete that sentence .

She sighed and looked back up at me again.

I began once again. "Your dad was always worried about you. We spoke about you a few times and it usually revolved around him looking at his cell phone." She smiled gently obviously understanding what I was saying. "He worries about you and especially when you're working late, and when I saw you both out grocery shopping, I couldn't help but follow you both home."

I tugged at my hair as I let my eyes drop. This was not going to sound good. "I...I know that sounds does. And I never thought about following you...not until I saw you leave for work once you got home."

I laughed at the stupidity of the situation. The only time I didn't seem to know if she was actually safe was when I had to meet with her father. "I waited and watched you leave work, and I got on the bus behind you...and I've been making sure you get home safe."

Her eyes were still wide with shock. "Okay..." I sighed. "Maybe I do need a doctor." I shrugged.

At that, she laughed. "Why would you do that? For a complete stranger?" she asked with disbelief.

I sat there looking at her, her brown eyes still shining from the tears she had shed over my scars, for that sad look on her face that I had put there.

I had to be honest.

"Because when someone saves your life...you owe them everything. And you are everything to Charlie."

She nodded gently at my words, trying to fathom them.

The air was thick with tension, but it wasn't uncomfortable. It was bearable but only just. I don't think I had been quite so open to anyone before.

She sat up a little more, straightening her back. "Thank you. Thank you for saving me. I won't be difficult any more."

Small smiles graced our lips.

I reached for her backpack sitting behind us on the bed. The bag that had caused so much bother. Picking it up I passed it to her. "You deserve your things." I shrugged. "They're not mine to keep. I'm sorry."

She nodded and accepted the bag. "I only wanted to make sure you weren't going to do anything to jeopardise your safety. I've had four weeks of keeping an eye on you and a pretty hard struggle of a fight with injuries to keep you safe." I laughed to show her that I didn't want her to take it too seriously, but seriously enough that she would do what was needed.

She opened her backpack and pulled out her laptop and handed me it. "You're right. Keep this..." next, she pulled out her cell phone. It was still switched off from when I had brought her here. "...and this. Theses guys," he shrugged, "whoever they are, they might have my IP address and be able to trace me here, so keep them and keep them turned off."

IP address? "IP address?" I asked confused.

She laughed. "Its a number that all computes have. Every one is unique and they can trace your town and other information on them. They can gather some more information with a court order, but I'm guessing that they won't be going that route, and because you said that they had been trying to get into the police department's records, they don't care for judges."

I looked at her, still confused but getting the gist of what she was saying. If they have her IP address, that they would have been able to pick up from her home, they could trace it to here.

How was that even possible?

I didn't bother asking for any more information. I didn't really want to know what information they could have been getting from her if that were the case.

Silence fell between us as things came to a standstill.

She stood up with her bag in her hand and looked down at me. Something lingered in the air, but she never spoke.

She turned and walked to the bottom of the stairs, leaving.

I just wanted to see her face before she left me for the evening. A million things raced through my head.

"The Outsider? You're reading The Outsider?" I asked in a rush.

She quickly turned to face me once again and nodded. "Have you read it?"

Standing up I walked over to the book case and searched for it. Bella walked up to my side as I pulled it out and passed it to her.

She looked up at me confused. "The Stranger?" she asked, completely thrown.

Laughing at the expression on her face, I could tell she thought I was mad. "It has two titles." I shrugged. "I don't know why. I think it's based on who translated it."

She nodded, "That makes sense.". It was originally written in French.

"Have you read it before?" I asked. I must have read it at least five times so far.

She shook her head as she looked at the book in her hands. The cover was different from the version she had in her backpack.

"Did it confuse you as much as it's confusing me?" she asked a little warily.

I had to laugh – I sat and read half of the book understanding nothing. The ending was everything.

"Keep reading. It's worth it. I saw you got to part two; chapter four." She nodded silently as she thumbed the spine, her eyes on the book.

"...for the first time in years I had the stupid urge to cry, because I could feel how much all those people hated me." I recited from the book. It was a powerful thought given the situation we were in.

Bella looked up at me and her eyes began to well up again. "I read that only a few hours before you saved me. But why would you say that?" Her tone was caring, but it was tinged with a little curtness, too. "No one hates you."

I broke my eyes away from hers and looked down at the floor. I could only shrug. "But you don't know the stranger yet." I was still the stranger to her.

She looked up at me, knowing that I was right. She didn't know me. She didn't know me at all.

She didn't say a word as she slowly made her way to the bottom of the staircase once again.

"Goodnight, Isabella," I cried out as her foot landed on the first step.

She stopped and turned to look up at me. "Bella... My friends call me Bella." She gave a small smile and I wondered if she had read my mind or if she had heard my argument with Alice. "Goodnight, Edward. I'll see you tomorrow."

I nodded. " See you tomorrow, Bella."


Please let me know what you think so far, and leave a little review. Thank you.